Sunday, July 28, 2013

Every day is a mountain

by: Joelle Charbonneau

I love my job. I mean it. I really love it. Otherwise, I can't imagine why I'd do it. I mean, sitting in front of a computer screen pulling my hair out when I don't know what happens next in my story isn't exactly the best way to spent a day. Some days the words come easier than others. But no matter how easy or hard it is to find the right words or the correct path for the story, there is one thing that is constant.

Every day of writing is like scaling a mountain. It doesn't matter that you just climbed a mountain yesterday because this is a new day. A new mountain. And if you don't make the climb, you will have to climb two tomorrow.

I always wake up excited to sit down and type. The mountain never looks all that big from the bottom, but it only takes a few minutes of climbing before I realize that no matter how much I want the climb to be quick and easy it is going to require lots of effort.

Word by word, sentence by sentence I fill paragraphs and pages. Some days it takes me an hour or two to scale the mountain. Other days the climb finishes only moments before I go to bed. No matter how long it takes, I feel energized by the accomplishment. Pages were filled. The story moved forward. I am one mountain closer to The End. And tomorrow I will wake up and start the climb on a brand new day.

Do you feel like you scale a mountain every day you report for work, or is it only me? And do you feel the same kind of excitement when you safely go up and over the peak and reach the other side?

2 comments:

I couldn't agree more. For all my talk of numbers adding up, as I've neared the end of my current book, my mountains have been a bit steeper. Whereas some days I can bust out a few thousand with ease, lately, I've had to scrap and claw for barely a grand. But I do wake up each day with great anticipation for just that day's progress, and I'm always relieved when I get words down and done with. Moreover, when I put that daily word count in my spreadsheet, I get another boost from seeing them all add up.

Oh, and you realize that as soon as I saw your post's headline, I started singing the song in my head...

Seeing the mountain in front of me used to be the biggest thing to hold me up. The Beloved Spouse taught me to eat the elephant one bite at a time, so now I view each day as climbing to s specific next point, where I can take a break with a clear conscience before starting the next day's climb. It's made all the difference for me.